It's one of those words that is used as a euphamism and will soon be like 'gay' (originally happy, but now another word for homosexual). Ethnic is taken to mean someone or something from the areas you describe, and has connotations of 'quaint', 'picturesque', and 'old fashioned'. Although I like the fact that our language is still dynamic I get frustrated when words are deliberately misused and lose their original meaning. Chief among these is when people refer to 'kids', who are obviously neither German children (kind, kinder) nor baby goats (kids). It is slang that is now used in place of the more difficult proper word - a bit like saying billion instead of thousand million (a British billion is a million million). Sorry, diatribe over, but you started me on this.

So that we can chuck all sorts of different cultural traditions, religions and national and regional identities into a single retail outlet without having to go through the trouble and effort of being specific about where things come from and what they actually signify. Without this linguistic convenience, we wouldn't be able to hang our walls with ceremonial bowls from the Bassari initiation rites without realising what they are used for. We can indulge in the exoticism of things being foreign without the inconvenience of specific and detailed cultural differences. Like most euphemisms, we do it 'cos we're lazy. Can you imagine the alternative though? Everything made in China would have a provenance certificate. It'd be insufferable.

I think we all know what the word ethnic is supposed to mean in a modern context, but the original meaning was from the 14th century. I was used to describe people who were not white Europeans. It also described people seen by the west as polytheist, i.e. pagans, heathens or gentiles. Although the meaning is taken from centuries ago and the modern meaning has seemingly changed, all good modern dictionaries still carry the archaic meaning. Some will even tell you than the archaic meaning is now obsolete. QUESTION: if you were a person of colour knowing the original meaning of the word ethnic, would you use it to describe yourself and your people? Particularly if you are of a monotheist faith. This question is for all nationalities to answer and it poses another question. How did the word get such popular usage today and who decided to revive and popularise it with new meanings?

Only because we are not ourselves African/Indian/ Asian/South American. "Etymology From French ethnique < Latin ethnicus < Ancient Greek έθνικÏŒσ (ethnikos, “of or for a nation, national”) < á¼”θνος (ethnos, “a company, later a people, nation”). Adjective ethnic (comparative more ethnic, superlative most ethnic) 1. (historical) heathen, not Judeo-Christian 2. Of or related to a group of people having common racial, national, religious or cultural origins. There are many ethnic Indonesians in the Netherlands 3. Belonging to a foreign culture. I like to eat ethnic food" Source and further information: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ethnic As reported, the first meaning is historical; but it could still have some influence. The other meanings are relative to the culture to which you belong yourself. If you are an American of European descent, you will possibly not consider European food ethnic, nor Australian food from Australian people of European descent. But you could consider Inuit food oder American Indian food ethnic. However, this could theoretically been reversed. For instance, the sentence: "There are many ethnic Indonesians in the Netherlands" could be reversed in "There are some ethnic Dutch in Indonesia".